Wealth & Space is an international collaborative research project led by five university partners, NGOs and local community organisations. Funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, the project investigates the nexus between wealth accumulation and the production of space in Latin America. The project departs from two premises:
Accumulation of wealth: Historically, the accumulation of wealth has been linked to the creation and appropriation of space, infrastructure, land and natural resources. The emergence of space and society are therefore mutually dependent. The contemporary phase of rentier capitalism produces and is produced by spaces that primarily serve the extraction of rents.
Production of space: In Latin America, the production and design of space are largely controlled by influential economic actors, known as business groups. Through business networks that maintain long-term, formal and informal links, yet remain legally independent, these actors are able to coordinate their actions and accumulate wealth.
The article “Money, meaning, and territory: family business groups and agro-extractive systems in Latin America”, published in the journal Extractive Industries and Society by Maria-Dorothea Wolf (KIT), David Kornbluth Camblor (UCHILE), Manuel Bayón Jiménez (COLMEX), Michael Lukas (UCHILE) and Michael Janoschka (KIT), examines how family business groups coordinate fragmented relationships within Latin America’s agro-extractive systems. Drawing on a comparative analysis of the Maggi (Brazil), Angelini (Chile) and González Hank (Mexico) business groups, the article demonstrates that, despite differing organisational positions, family business groups assume comparable coordination functions. Their significance lies less in their ownership of individual companies or infrastructure than in their ability to link material, institutional and symbolic relationships across territories and organisational boundaries. The article thus expands research on agro-extractivism by offering a new perspective on the coordinating role of family business groups.
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Besides internal meetings, we will offer a two-day public workshop on geographies of wealth. On 15 December, we will celebrate the public launch of "Geographies of Wealth", our new platform for critical research on territorial power. Details to follow.
Link to Platform
From 17 to 18 March 2026, the symposium "Perspectives on Wealth 2026" brought together Wealth & Space and 14 more projects funded by the Volkswagen Stiftung. At Schloss Herrenhausen, Hannover, we presented preliminary research findings from Chile, Brazil and Mexico.
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The meeting in Mérida fostered exchange on current research topics in the Yucatán Peninsula and advanced the development of the Observatory of the Geography of Wealth.The meeting consisted of four days of intensive dialogue, academic work and a specialized transdisciplinary workshop to develop our interactive platform “Geographies of Wealth”. A public conversatory highlighted the need for a participatory platform to document the social and environmental impacts of extractive development models.
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By introducing spatial dimensions into wealth research, Wealth & Space tackles important knowledge gaps.
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Works published by the team.
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Discover the final work package of Wealth & Space: Geographies of Wealth. A dynamic, interventionist Platform for Critical Research.
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Case Study Regions
Wealth & Space examines the conflicts arising from the tension between wealth accumulation and the production of space, using three case study regions in Chile, Brazil and Mexico.
Matopiba: the agribusiness-urbanization nexus
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Antofagasta and Santiago de Chile: the mining-urbanization nexus
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Yucatan Península: The tourism-urbanization nexus
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Collaborating institutions
